The Day I Would Fall In Love With My Bestfriends
by Sealteamnicholas
Summary: I will start this story slow so I can develop my characters and let you get to know them all so I can eventually make them what I want them to be. -STN


New York State

1 WEEK before the fall

Nick sat on the park bench with his best friend Miranda, who had decided, unintentionally, to make his already fucked up world even more fucked. He would shoot a gaze her way every now and again and glimpse her perfect body. The way her body looked in her tight, army green jeans was just enough to make his 20-year-old mind think of all the many things he wanted to do to her. Before she could notice his staring, he forced his gaze to his shoes, she was his friend and all he wanted to do with her involved her, a table and himself, but not to play a game of Blackjack. His thoughts were interrupted by the most peculiar thing, this white goose flew to a halt about two feet in front of him. This strange creature was not new to this part of the U.S.A but it was surprisingly far from its normal wintering destination. The wounded goose approached with its right wing out stretched. As the goose approached, Nick was left more confused than before when he saw the specks of blood that radiated from its white wings and grew thicker at the dark brown tips of its wing. The snow goose stopped at his foot and gazed into his eyes.

"Oh shit!" Yelled Miranda, "Holy shit biscuits!"

"Hold on, don't scare it away." Nick responded in a hushed voice, "It looks like he hurt his wing."

"Fuck Nick I hate birds!" She responded, jumping over the bench and hiding on the other side, "Holy shit that thing is huge!"

"Help me pick him up." Nick commanded, forgetting the before statements, "He shouldn't be that heavy."

"The hell do you mean 'not heavy'?" Miranda was still afraid to approach the goose, "What the hell is that?"

"That is a snow goose."

"How do you know?"

"The brown aviation feathers and the white body along with his mate over by that tree."

"How the f…"

"He isn't going to attack."

"And how do you know this, Nick, is the way the wind blowing making him more docile?" Miranda mocked.

"No, it's an educated assumption made on the knowledge from the year I minored in Animal Psychology."

"I thought you were taking Criminal Psychology?"

"I am."

"Nick, what the hell happened to it?"

"There was an owl on the building over there."

"I thought owls only eat mice and rats?"

"I think the Horny Owl will eat small birds as well."

As Miranda relented and helped Nick pick up the bird, she saw the owl perched on a branch gazing into her eyes with its crimson orbs. The goose only weighed about 8 Lbs. but it was about a third the size of Nick and she was afraid that the goose would bite at Nick and hurt him, and she was much too in love with the way he wouldn't show his emotions around anyone, the way he hid behind the workings of the human mind to somehow make up for the wrongs he did, the way that he would always look her up and down and try to pretend he wasn't, but most of all she loved the way he would jump in the middle of fights and protect her. Nick was, by many' s definition a Wolf. Nick had dark brown eyes like she, but she could have sworn anytime he got into a fight on her behalf his eyes would turn a shade of orange. Nick was always there for Miranda and what happened two years before was a topic he never brought up even though he had saved her without knowing what had sparked the situation. She loved him for saving her and letting her bring it up at her own pace. Nick was a stolid individual, he never showed his emotions unless he wanted to, and one thing he had become a master at was hiding his panic and affection. The way that he held the goose, which had now started to bleed profusely from its right wing.

"We need to get him to a vet." Nick said, "Non tempus tuam."

"What was that?"

"Latin."

"No shit we took four years of Latin togethers." Miranda retorted opening the door to her car, "I mean what is the translation?"

"It is not your time." Nick said with the bird cradled in both hands, "In some Native American cultures the owl is seen as a death omen, they also believe that the sight of one's birth animal is a sign of good or bad luck depending on the totem."

"How the hell do you know this stuff?" As Miranda drove, she marveled at the way her 'best friends' mind worked, the way he was able to comfort and animal the way you would a human child and then start talking about Native American lore like it was all the same. The veterinary hospital was in view, but there was something that pulled at Miranda's mind, it was the way the owl had looked at her, it seemed so human, it looked at her as if it wanted her to admire it artwork she remembers seeing the goose and the way the gashes were hidden until the blood started to fall, the goose was still awake in Nicks arms, it keep its eyes locked on Miranda in the mirror, it had the same human feel to its gaze as though it was someone begging for mercy.

"I am a snow goose."

"We need to get him inside!"

As the door to the VH was opened Nick and Miranda had rushed the bloody goose into the reception area where they were meet by doctor ready to take away the goose, Nick walked to the reception desk and placed his wallet on the counter telling the receptionist to "do what every it takes, whatever the cost". The duo went over to the chairs and sat, both said nothing. It took many hours until finally a doctor returned with news. Nick never moved and was only awoken from his daze by Miranda's hand on his shoulder.

"They did what the could." Miranda said sullenly, "You did what you could."

"How is enough good, if good is not enough?" Nick replied

"Get in the car, you can stay at my place."

The walk back to the car was one of the hardest things Nick has ever done, the thought of not doing more was clawing at the base of his skull, it felt like the cold steel of a worrier's blade as it was thrust into his heart. The challenge coin Nick carried in his pocket felt as though it was made of molten steel, burning what was left untouched by fates cold blade. The coin bearing the name of his grandfather was as heavy as himself, it weighed him down. As he and Miranda moved from room to room, he pulled the coin from his pocket and examined it in his hand, its surface was marred by months of use and by the icy grip of time. Miranda knelt before Nick and grasped at his hands, the years they had spent in each other's compony was all coming down to this, the lowest Nick had ever been. Nick could handle death, it was a familiar sting, but what he could not handle was senseless destruction, a nothingness that consumed all he was. The sting of tears at the back of his eyes was all to real for him to handle, his reality had been shattered, and all he could do was wish he had what was his old life back. Nick knew of a time when myths of old where not myths, a time of harmony between creatures like a Gryphon and Humans, when he thought of this time, he never was able to figure why Humans were all that was left. The fleeting memory of childhood fantasies was a comfort now forgotten. As Nick gazed at his hands enveloped by his best friends, he was able to make out one voice among the silence that poisoned his once humming mind, "We make our own monster, then fear them for what they show us about ourselves".

"Nick, I only realized it today, but I think I'm in love with you." Miranda said, tears flooded her eyes and crept down her face, "I need my Nick, he is somewhere in there."

"He loves you just as much." It was nicks mouth but not himself making the words, as if it was a different person in his skin.

"Tell me, what makes you tick?" Miranda asked the question that she had had for years, but never the courage to ask, "I need to know."

"The need to prove myself to myself is what keeps me going, I need to live up to somebody, and who better than myself to live up to." Nick was slowly regaining control of himself, his head started to regain the voices that once made it what it was, "I also needed to show myself that I was worthy of people like you, Miranda."

As Nick finished his sentence Miranda wrapped him in a hug. She was still crying when Nick finally regained control of his hands and was able to hug back. Miranda was the sunlight needed to open his heart, with out it he would have shriveled and died in the deep abyss that is his soul, like a beating heart the soul is the embodiment of all a person is, was, and will be, it may be a place with hidden secrets, but with the right influence the dark depths of the soul can be hidden and forgotten if for just a moment, but then again life is but a moment.


End file.
